1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for transporting personal articles and more specifically to carry packs for organizing, storing, and transporting substantially flattened or compressible articles along with rolled up cushioning articles such as sleeping gear, exercise and seating mats, towels and other rolled up articles.
2. General Background and State of the Art:
Adults as well as children often engage in overnight camping trips as well as slumber parties. For such extended stays, the overnighter generally must pack both a sleeping bag and a personal carrying pack. Typically, any personal items are stored in a carrying pack such as a school backpack or knapsack that is transported on the individual's back or hand-carried. The sleeping bag is also generally rolled up into a bulky cylindrical package and lugged under one arm or otherwise carried by a handle. Thus, even with the carrying pack worn on the back, this transportation method occupies at least one arm and takes up a significant amount of space. While the size of some backpacks allows the user to compress the sleeping bag into the bottom of the pack, this is not practical for many of the larger, less compressible sleeping bags commonly used on overnight trips. In addition, the sleeping bag is typically stored at the bottom of the pack and is not readily accessible without removing the entire contents of the pack.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,072 to Hsu an integrated knapsack and sleeping bag combination is described in an attempt to reduce some of this transportation concern. However, the sleeping bag in this combination is connected to the lining of the knapsack and thus does not facilitate cleaning the sleeping bag or replacing the sleeping bag once it is outgrown or degrades so as to be no longer useful.
Another solution for carrying personal items is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,300 to Robinson. This patent describes a roll pack for transporting articles to the beach or a picnic area. The roll pack described in this patent describes a set of pockets along one edge for storing articles including a pillow and a set of pockets along the opposite edge for storing a set of tie wraps so as to prevent the hook and loop fasteners from becoming fouled with dirt or other contaminants. The majority of the roll pack is taken up by a large intermediate section made up of an absorbent material such as terry cloth. This central enlarged section is provided for use as a towel so that the user does not need to bring a separate towel. By providing such a large towel section, this roll pack configuration wastes a considerable amount of useable storage space. Moreover, it would be impractical to store articles up against the wet towel section as such articles could absorb the towel moisture and become damaged.
Thus, there exists a need for rollup pack for maximizing storage space while transporting a rolled up article such as a sleeping bag in a manner so as to free the user's hands during transportation.